Forty square feet is roughly 5 by 8 feet. It is the standard small bathroom dimension in GTA housing, it appears in century semis, post-war bungalows, and condos alike, and it will accommodate a toilet, a sink, and a tub or shower. It will do so well or badly, and the difference is entirely in the clearances and the fixture selection. Here is what actually fits.
These are the working dimensions. Confirm current Ontario Building Code requirements for your project, since some are Code minimums and some are best practice, but design to these numbers and the room will function.
Toilet:
Sink and vanity:
Shower:
Bathtub:
Door:
The most common and the most efficient use of a 5 by 8 room.
Why it works: all plumbing sits on one wall plus the tub wall, which minimizes the rough-in cost. The 30-inch clear aisle along the opposite wall serves all three fixtures.
Watch: the door swing. In a 5-foot width, an inward-swinging door often collides with the vanity or the toilet. Swing it outward if the hallway allows, or use a pocket door.
Why it works: separates the toilet from the vanity, which helps when two people use the room simultaneously. Feels less like a corridor.
Watch: plumbing runs to two walls instead of one, which adds cost. Verify the 30-inch clear width at the toilet.
Trading the tub for a shower frees roughly 12 to 24 inches, which is transformative in this footprint.
Why it works: the freed space goes into the vanity, which is what most households actually want. A 36-inch vanity instead of a 24-inch one changes the room.
Watch: the one-tub rule. If this is the only full bathroom in a family home, keep the tub. See our separate piece on what tubs and showers do to resale.
The entire room is tiled and waterproofed, with the shower as a zone rather than an enclosure, usually behind a single glass panel.
Why it works: in a very small bathroom, removing the shower enclosure entirely makes the room read as one space rather than three cramped ones. It is also the most accessible configuration.
Watch: the whole floor needs waterproofing, and the floor structure needs to accommodate a curbless drain, which is a framing question rather than a tiling one. Costs more than a conventional layout. Ventilation has to be sized properly because the whole room gets wet.
Wall-hung toilet. The tank sits inside the wall in a carrier frame. Saves roughly 6 to 10 inches of depth compared to a standard toilet, and it makes the floor continuous underneath, which makes the room look larger and is easier to clean. Costs more, requires a 2 by 6 wall or a furred-out wall to house the carrier, and requires access to the carrier for service.
Compact or short-projection toilet. Standard toilets project 28 to 30 inches from the wall. Compact models project 24 to 25. Cheaper than wall-hung and saves real depth.
Wall-hung or floating vanity. Same visual effect as a wall-hung toilet. Floor continues underneath, room reads larger. Requires structural blocking in the wall, which must be installed before the drywall.
Narrow-depth vanity. Standard is 21 to 22 inches deep. Narrow-depth units at 16 to 18 inches free up 4 to 6 inches of aisle, which in a 5-foot room is meaningful.
Corner sink. Uses dead space. Sacrifices counter and storage, so it is a last resort.
Pocket door. Eliminates the swing entirely. Frees 8 to 10 square feet of usable floor. Requires a wall cavity with no plumbing or major electrical, which is the limiting factor, and hardware quality matters because cheap pocket door hardware fails.
Outward-swinging door. Free, if the hallway allows. Also a safety benefit, since a person who falls against the inside of an inward-swinging door can block it.
Sliding or fixed glass shower panel instead of a hinged door. A hinged shower door needs clearance to swing. A sliding door or a single fixed panel does not.
Alcove tub at 54 inches instead of 60, available in some product lines, or a Japanese-style deep soaking tub at 48 inches. Frees 6 to 12 inches. Verify it suits the household before committing, since a shorter tub is a real compromise for adults.
Recessed medicine cabinet. Storage that occupies no floor or projecting depth. Requires a stud bay free of plumbing and wiring.
Shower niche. Storage inside the wall rather than a caddy projecting into the shower.
Spend on:
Skip:
Not a substitute for good planning, but they help.
Doing this in the reverse order, which is how it usually happens, produces a bathroom where the finishes are lovely and the door hits the toilet.
Where is the stack, and does the layout keep the toilet near it? In a 40 square foot bathroom, keeping the toilet drain in place can save $2,000 to $5,000, and in a slab or a basement it can save considerably more. That saving buys a wall-hung vanity, a better fan, and proper waterproofing, all of which do more for the room than moving the toilet three feet.
Maple Leaf Quality Renos dimensions every clearance on the drawings before pricing a GTA bathroom, including small ones. If you want to know what will actually fit in your room, that is where we start.
Contact Maple Leaf Quality Renos for a free, no-obligation consultation and a detailed written estimate for your GTA renovation project.
Phone: +1 (647) 496-3360
Email: contact@mapleleafqualityrenos.ca
Website: www.mapleleafqualityrenos.ca
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